A Better Way to Grade Schools

I read this article tonight on A better way to grade schools by Bill Breisch. Here is an excerpt:


If School A and School B had identical state test scores, would they have similar success with students? Consider that School A started the year with low-performing students and caused every one of them to grow twice as much as students in School B. We immediately realize that end-of-year testing data can tell us where students are at a point in time, but not where they started or how far they traveled to get there.

Some of the findings of this important study require us to challenge our current perception of school success. It turns out that:

  • Schools with similar status levels differ substantially in the achievement gains of their students.
  • More than 20 percent of “high-achieving” schools fall into the bottom quarter of schools in terms of the value they add to their students’ achievement.
  • Many “low-achieving” schools actually cause as much growth in their students’ learning as the best high-achievement schools.


How are our schools really doing here in District 46 and in Illinois in general? Are we just keeping the status-quo or are we really improving?

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